UMD, Pulaski Elementary singers team up to put on choral concert

With 23 days to go before Christmas, a group of musical ensembles from UMass Dartmouth and Pulaski Elementary in New Bedford whipped up some holiday cheer Sunday at the UMD Winter Choral Concert.

MATT CAMARA

DARTMOUTH — It's not every day that elementary school students and university music majors work together to put on a concert.

"A lot of us are music education majors. ... It's good for us to get this interaction" with younger students, said UMass Dartmouth junior Jessica Miller, a music major from Dighton.

With 23 days to go before Christmas, a group of musical ensembles from UMass Dartmouth and Casimir Pulaski Elementary School in New Bedford whipped up some holiday cheer with a lineup of old-time carols and a few more contemporary favorites Sunday at the UMD Winter Choral Concert.

Although Zhou has worked with vocal groups from the New Bedford Public Schools for four years, this year was the first featuring the Pulaski Arts Magnet School Chorus, he said.

Pulaski, a North End elemetary school, is an arts "magnet" school, meaning that students interested in the school's intergration of arts, music and academics from across the city may attend, Principal Tammy Morgan said.

UMass Dartmouth's university choir, chamber choir ensemble and 33 Pulaski students were joined by the school's a capella group Mental Note and the UMD Gospel Choir, who all played a set for the packed campus auditorium.

"They benefit from this not just musically, but from coming to a college and seeing this," Morgan said about the Pulaski students after the concert.

A number of UMass chorus singers agreed, saying they hoped the experience would spur their younger counterparts to continue pursuing music.

"To see their faces when they hear the university chorus behind them, they just get so excited," said music major Jacob O'Brien of Pittsfield.

Miller, O'Brien and other university choir singers said they picked up chorus as small children, taking vocal lessons since early ages and investing hours and hours into music, something that sounded familiar to some of the younger kids.

"Music is my life. Music is what I want to do for my career. I feel pretty excited and I feel all psyched up for the concert," said Pulaski student Shaylee Levasseur prior to the concert.

To prepare for the concert UMass Dartmouth university choir members and Pulaski students had to rehearse together several times, putting in a number of hours and a particularly lengthy dress rehearsal, Zhou said.

But the experience of singing alongside budding talent is one the singers relish, he added.

"Our students get so much from this event," he said. "It reminds us of why we chose music."